St. John sheriff shootings point to 'sovereign citizens' threat

The group has ties to at least 2 of the 7 people accused in an ambush in a LaPlace trailer park that left 2 St. John Parish deputies dead and another 2 wounded
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The exchange captured by the patrol car's dashboard camera began like any other traffic stop -- until a teenage boy jumped from the passenger door with an automatic weapon.

"My men didn't realize who or what they were dealing with," West Memphis Arkansas Police Chief Bob Paudert told the Southern Poverty Law Center. "Neither officer made it home."

The boy and his father, who murdered two police officers on the side of that highway in May 2010, were members of the growing anti-government group called the Sovereign Citizens. It is the same group with ties to at least two of the seven people accused in connection with an ambush in a LaPlace trailer park, that left two St. John the Baptist Sheriff's deputies dead and another two wounded.

The Arkansas incident led the Southern Poverty Law Center to track the group. What they found was so alarming they created a 12-minute video warning police officers of the sovereign threat.

The movement is a descendant of the now-defunct, violent Posse Comitatus, a white supremacist, anti-Semitic group born in the 1970s, said Mark Potok, a second fellow at the Southern Poverty Law Center. The Posse Comitatus was dismantled and its members largely struck out on their own, loosely connected via thousands of online forums.

Sovereigns recognize little authority higher than their own. They believe that individuals, not courts or government, decide what laws a person must follow. They often refuse to pay taxes, get driver's licenses or obey speed limits.

Their leaders are little more than snake oil salesmen, luring those with money problems and feeble minds with promises of quick cash by filing cryptic lawsuits and liens against the government. The practice is now referred to as "paper terrorism," by the FBI.

Sovereigns' violent propensities can be tracked to Terry Nichols, a self-proclaimed sovereign and co-conspirator in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. Kyle Joekel, accused in the LaPlace murders, once described Nichols as a hero.

One of his alleged co-conspirators, another sovereign named Terry Smith, once listed among his heroes white supremacist Randy Weaver, who led the 10-day standoff with federal agents at Ruby Ridge, Idaho, in 1992, and self-proclaimed prophet and accused child molester David Koresh, who led the Branch Davidians religious sect to their fiery death in Waco, Texas.

"What we didn't understand at first was that these events were a catalyst, a catalyst for the growth of a radical anti-government movement, a catalyst for the birth of armed militias," retired FBI Agent James Cavanaugh told the Southern Poverty Law Center for its training video.

Since, sovereigns have killed at least six officers, not counting the LaPlace murders, usually during routine traffic stops. They've otherwise conspired to kill judges and mayors and other public officials who they believe to have wronged them.

In May 2010, Jerry Kane and his 16-year-old son shot and killed two police officers and wounded two others in a shootout on the highway in West Memphis, Ark. Both the father and the son were killed by police in the ensuing shootout.

Potok said the sovereign threat has grown steadily, exploding in concert with President Barack Obama's election in 2008. The Center estimates their numbers at 300,000, with 100,000 hardcore sovereigns and another 200,000 admirers.

More than 80,000 law enforcement officers have ordered the video, he said.

"Their beliefs may sound so out there that they appear comical or crazy," their police chief says in the training video. "But don't discount or ignore these people. Because they are willing to kill and be killed for these beliefs. We as law enforcement need to recognize this very real threat."